Fad Dieting (Cause & Effect Paper)

Often times the media portrays celebrities as attractive, skinny people that live wonderful lives of fame and fortune. It is easy to say that such popularity exists as a direct result of their physical appearance and therefore leads people to associate prosperity and happiness with looks. Sadly this media focus brings people to believe that dieting is necessary because they need to be skinny in order to feel accepted by society. One way people attempt to lose weight and change their appearance to resemble a celebrity’s is through dieting, especially fad dieting.

Fad dieting is a quick, yet unhealthy, way to lose weight in a short amount of time. There is not necessarily one fad diet that people turn to in efforts to lose weight, but a variety of them that all serve the same purposes. The primary goals of fad diets are to show quick results, easy implementation into daily routine and remarkable improvements in the overall views a person holds of themselves. They do this by specifying which individual foods or combinations of foods should be eaten, setting certain times people must eat and even completely eliminating certain types of foods from someone’s usual diet (Freedman, 2013).

Some of the most common fad diets include the Atkins Diet, the Rotation Diet and the Zone. The Atkins Diet recommends that dieters eliminate carbohydrates from their eating, the Rotation Diet suggest specific times that foods should be eaten and the Zone stresses the consumption of specific combinations of foods in an exact proportion of 40/30/30. Each diet obviously attacks weight loss from different perspectives of dieting and therefore presents more opportunities for people to find the one that fits them best. This is another reason people turn to fad dieting.

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When a product promises quick results with simple steps to reach a targeted weight, it seems too good to be true. This feeling of disbelief occurs simply because a healthy diet that delivers fast, accurate results does not exist. Despite the fact that varieties of fad diets are available for people to choose from, none of them support a healthy way of losing weight. Not only that, but the results do not tend to last. Fad diets cause quick weight loss, but such results are only short-term. According to the first paragraph in Marjorie R.

Freedman’s article, Fad Diets, on FAQs. org, “As many as ninety-five percent of people who lose weight gain it back within five years” (2013). In addition to dieters gaining back the weight, some also experience other health problems caused by the diet itself. The Weight Loss and Fad Diets 2011 article on Better Health Channel suggests that symptoms of dehydration, weakness, fatigue, nausea, headaches, constipation and inadequate vitamin and mineral intake may be caused by fad diets because they cut out key foods necessary to the well-being of a person.

The bottom line to fad dieting is getting the user to take in less energy than they are required to use for everyday tasks; resulting in the lack of energy that causes the side effects listed in Weight Loss and Fad Diets. However, many of these side effects are avoidable. There are alternate ways to losing weight that many people do not consider because they do not promise drastic weight loss in short periods of time. Although this is true, other diets promote healthier weight loss and tend to reveal long-term success.

In comparison to fad diets, healthy diets do not necessarily target water weight that will eventually be gained back. They focus on improving balanced eating plans with incorporating more exercise into one’s daily schedule. With this type of dieting, users gradually begin to change their lifestyles by forming healthy habits that will last. They do not need to face all of the struggles that accompany fad diets and their harsh demands that assure fast but temporary weight loss. MD Margo A.

Denke’s article Metabolic Effects of High-Protein, Low-Carbohydrate Diets in The American Journal of Cardiology volume 88 refers to fad diets and the fact that “claiming an enhanced sense of well being is hardly appropriate for a traditional diet—most patients report dissatisfaction from the constant vigilance over dietary intake. ” Miracle foods and quick results scream caution when it comes to diets. Such claims often lead to short-term effects that leave dieters unsatisfied.

Choosing to use traditional, healthy diets not only improves one’s well-being in a safer manner, but also teaches them to incorporate the habit of healthy eating and exercise into their everyday routine. Fad diets lead consumers into believing that losing weight quickly is the way to go when in reality gradual dieting is more beneficial and leaves people with a greater sense of accomplishment. References Denke, M. A. (2001, July 1). Metabolic Effects of High-Protein, Low-Carbohydrate Diets. The American Journal of Cardioogy, Vol. 88. Retrieved March 7, 2013, from

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